owner | Construction Law Authority

An Owner’s Guide to Construction Defects Claim Documentation – Part II

July 22, 2013

Part II of this series addresses the situation where a Condominium Association or Homeowners' Association (or any individual property owner) has discovered a construction or design defect arising from renovations or repairs that it has directly purchased....

Life Safety Defects: The Importance of Giving Prompt Notice

October 19, 2012

Michele Ammendola

Construction Defects

The failure to provide a timely written notice to responsible parties could delay or even hurt the owner's ability to bring a claim for construction or design defects....

Why Should the Condominium Association Require Bonds from the Renovation Contractor

May 8, 2012

Claramargaret H. Groover

Insurance

We often encounter Condominium Associations who have difficulty understanding why they should bond their exterior renovation contract. Many Associations consider it money wasted on another layer of liability protection when they would rather spend the money on actual scope – sticks, bricks, and finishes. They do not expect the surety to pay the claims even if they are made against the Contractor’s Performance and Payment Bonds. Association Boards often ask, “Isn’t the risk already covered by all the insurance required from the Contractor?” The short answer is, “No”, and here’s why. A performance bond, unlike insurance, assures the Association that the Contractor, or its Surety, will complete the project even if the contractor goes bankrupt or cannot competently perform to complete the contract. In addition, sometimes a Surety can be required to pay Association claims for work not properly performed even after occupancy. See, Federal Ins. Co. v. The Southwest Florida Retirement Center, Inc.,...

Learning From Others’ Lessons, That They Learned The Hard Way.

January 23, 2012

Ryan Carpenter

Cases, Construction Defects, Litigation

If an owner fails to promptly investigate symptoms of a construction defect, the owner not only runs the risk of a small problem becoming bigger and more expensive to fix, but also runs the risk of losing his or her right to hold the responsible entities accountable. Owners, like the Hochbergs, have lost claims by failing to promptly investigate defects and timely sue the responsbile entities. Others can learn from their experiences without suffering the consequences....

Construction Contracting for the Owner: The Owner – Contractor Relationship

April 17, 2011

Sanjay Kurian

Contracts

In choosing a Contractor, often the Owner chooses a Contractor through a bidding process. Sometimes the Owner engages a Contractor on their own. However the Contractor is contracted it is important to spell out the details of the terms. Courts will not protect an Owner from a bad deal that the Owner has voluntarily entered. This means that those multimillion dollar one page contracts floating around (I have seen a number of them over the years) will be enforced by a court if the Owner does not live up to the terms, no matter how one sided. In the bidding process, the Owner, with the help of the Design Professional, sends out a bid packet to various contractors and invites them to bid on the project. The Owner and Design Professional then evaluate the bids and review the responsiveness of the bid, the responsibleness of the bids (is the bidder lowballing now in hopes of issuing...

Construction Contracting for the Owner: The Owner – Design Professional Relationship

April 6, 2011

Sanjay Kurian

Contracts

Once the owner has decided to undertake a project they generally retain the services of a design professional. The design professional is the engineer or architect hired by the owner to be used at various points throughout the project. General discussions between the owner and design professional should include the owner’s expectations of the projects, budgets, specific materials which need to be used or special considerations about the project. In both renovations and new construction these discussions would also include aesthetic considerations. Although all these discussions may happen, the scope of the design professional’s relationship with the owner is that which is spelled out in the contract between the owner and design professionals. An owner in retaining the design professional needs to define his expectations of the design professional, and those expectations should be reduced to a written contract. As an owner, if you want the design professional to provide contract administration then you must ask...

Construction Contracting for the Owner – Parties to a Construction Project

March 30, 2011

Sanjay Kurian

Contracts

This is part 1 of our series on Construction Contracting for the owner. Once you have decided to begin a construction project, whether this project is a reroof, concrete restoration, painting, repaving or anything else, there are generally 3 main groups involved. The first of these groups is the owner. The owner is the person or entity on whose behalf the work is being done. The types of owners range from an individual, development entity, hotel, condominium association, homeowner's association or a governmental agency. Although the owner may be using a bank to finance the construction, the owner is the party generally responsible for ensuring payment to the other 2 groups. The second group is generally the design professionals. This group consists of the engineer or architect hired by the owner to prepare any drawings or specifications for the work to be done. In larger projects, the owner may contract with an Architect who then hires various subconsultants (geotechnical engineer, structural...